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FARM OFFICIAL: CAP FUNDING CUT SHOULD ONLY BE COMMENSURATE WITH BREXIT SHORTFALL

 

Hungary demands that any decline in CAP funding should be commensurate with the payment shortfall due to Brexit, a Hungarian farm official has said. As the UK, one of the largest net contributors, will soon be leaving the European Union, it would be unrealistic to expect Common Agricultural Policy funding to be kept at its current level of 382 billion euros, the farm ministry cited Zsolt Feldman, the state secretary of agriculture, as saying at a meeting of EU farm ministers in Luxembourg on Monday. Hungary, however, will only accept a cut proportional to a decline in funding linked to Brexit, Feldman said.

He noted that the European Commission’s current plan would slash Hungary’s CAP funding by 17% in the 2021-2027 financial cycle. Subsidies for rural development would plummet by 26%, he said, adding that cuts on this scale would be “unacceptable” as they would greatly increase the burden on farmers. Hungary and 19 other member states on Monday supported a joint declaration calling on the EU to maintain CAP subsidies at their current level. Feldman noted that the European Council will make the final decision on CAP funding. The declaration sends an “important political message”, he said.